THE BULLY AT WORK
When the Workplace is a School ©2013 Gail Pursell Elliott
With the new school year just beginning, many anti-bullying programs are getting attention.
A student came home last year after his principal had presented a well-meaning bullying assembly program and observed that the program taught the students more of how to bully someone rather than how to stop it. While that certainly was not the intent, the focus of many of the programs presented to students is on what not to do rather than on expectations.
Recently, New Jersey extended the interpretation of its bullying in schools legislation to include bullying by teachers, specifically meaning bullying of students by teachers which was triggered by a specific case. It would have been easy to extend the law to anyone and everyone in the schools, regardless of status, if someone had had the courage and insight to do so.
It is unfortunate that the interpretation of school bullying legislation in every state is not extended to the school district as a whole, whether in the classroom or among employees. Those who would never dream of bullying a student often participate in mobbing of their peers and subordinates in that same environment where the expectation is that students will be protected.
If you think that mobbing and bullying in schools is just among students, think again. It is currently estimated that twenty-five to thirty percent of school employees have either been targeted or have observed others subjected to workplace mobbing and bullying.
Over the years I have been contacted for help by many teachers, both in K-12 schools and on the college level, who have been subjected to this abuse in their work- places. With the emphasis on students bullying students the concept of mobbing and bullying among faculty and school leadership is rarely recognized or addressed. Schools are workplaces where mobbing can and does exist.
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In Decatur: She didn't 'Run, Hide, Fight,' she talked
Antoinette Tuff, a school clerk, successfully talked down a young man, armed with an assault rifle and other weapons, who entered an elementary school. No one was hurt. However, had Tuff been trained to physically confront an active shooter, a tragedy could have ensued, Ken Trump, a nationally known expert on school safety, told Security Director News. “Had [Tuff] thrown a stapler at the gunman rather than talk to him, she’d probably be dead now and so would others,” said Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. Trump is a vocal opponent of the so-called “Run, Hide, Fight” philoso- phy and principles from the ALICE Training Institute, which have been embraced by a number of schools nationwide. Those philosophies advocate teaching students and staff to take a proactive, “counter” role when faced with an armed intruder.
In light of this incident and the Newtown, Conn., tragedy last December in which a gunman shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults, “people are so raw emotionally that they’re grasping at straws,” Trump said. A fight-back philosophy makes parents and school staffers “feel empowered,” he said.
Chris Dorn, an analyst with Safe Havens, an international, non-profit campus safety center, said there are gaps in the "Run, Hide, Fight" strategy. "If you absolutely have to, you fight," Dorn told SDN, "but teachers are only hearing 'fight' "during that training, he said, so educators feel like that's the first option. "Best practices haven't changed since Newton," Dorn said. Scenario training is key, he said. "A plan on paper is different from implementing it under crisis stress."
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Rampage Report Site Launched
Check out the new incident aggregator site called the Rampage Report. The site will track significant shootings, assaults and acts of violence in public places except for "criminal" acts (such as robberies and gang-violence). A short description of each incident along with a link to the original article is included and the site will be updated as incidents occur (hopefully this will not be frequently).
Visit
RampageReport.com
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